African Cup Of Nations Team Profile: Cote d'Ivoire

The Ivorian national football
team, also known as the Elephants, easily qualified for their second
World Cup in a row after their first experience in 2006 in Germany. It
was also marking the eighteenth time they made it to the Continental
stage.

This will mark another occasion where the Elephants will seriously be vying
for continental supremacy, and of course they will be considered as
favourites, thanks to their star-studded squad and impressive style of
play.

National Team Manager Vahid Halilhodzic has been given the task to
reiterate the 1992 Senegalese AFCON feat when the Elephants beat the
Black Stars of Ghana in Dakar and brought back the African unity trophy
to Abidjan after an epic penalty shootout.

Road To Qualification

Cote d'Ivoire was in Group 7 of the second round of qualifiers during
the joint qualifiers to the 2010 African Cup of Nations and 2010 World
Cup. The group was completed by Madagascar, Botswana and Mozambique.
They easily led the Group and finished undefeated with three victories
and three draws, earning themselves twelve points. They were followed,
respectively by Mozambique (8 points), Madagascar (6 points) and
Botswana (5 points).

Qualified to the third round of the qualifiers, Cote d'Ivoire was in
Group E with Guinea, Burkina-Faso and Malawi as the other teams. Once
again the Elephants remained undefeated with five wins and one draw out
of their six games, topping the group and getting to their second World
Cup in a row with two match-days remaining. The Ivorians took in sixteen
points and were followed by an impressive Burkina-Faso side who managed
to pull in twelve points. Malawi and Guinea closed the standings with
four and three points, respectively.

In
the African Cup of Nations
finals, Cote d'Ivoire will be in Group B together with Ghana, Togo and
Burkina-Faso once again.

The
Coach

Vahid Halilhodzic was appointed on May 11th 2008, a few months after the
Ghanaian African Cup of Nation's disappointing outcome for the Elephants, who came fourth overall. He replaced Gerard Gili who himself took over Uli
Stielike when the German technician left the squad to go by his ill
wife's bedside.

Yugoslavian Halilhodzic has made a coaching career for himself mainly in
France after having been a beloved player at Nantes and Paris
Saint-Germain. After coaching Lille for four years, he took them from
second division to the Champions League in three seasons, landing
himself a job with his old club, the more prestigious Paris Saint-Germain
where he managed to bring them back to the Champions League by
finishing second in the 2004 season.

Known for his particularly hard training regimen and zero tolerance
policy when it comes to his athletes' extra-curricular activities, the
technician has always had excellent results wherever he has been but
reaches a point of saturation when the players do not
respond to the boot-camp-like techniques he frequently uses.

Halilhodzic seems to be the right man at the right time for Cote
d'Ivoire to finally take their talent and potential to the next level.
With his experience taking limited talent to the extreme high of their
potentials, everyone is expecting him to make miracles with a team that
is considered by many to have the most talented African squad ever, at least
on paper.

Halilhodzic has managed to make them a force to be reckoned with by stripping the
glamour and frivolity out of their game. Cote d'Ivoire has not lost a
single official qualifying game during the last two rounds and have
created a style attractive enough to make them the African team every
heavyweight wanted to avoid.

Some might argue that anyone would be successful with such a team,
chock-full of talent that it is. But Vahid has managed to put his stamp
on the Elephants and is even evolving as a manager to have a more
spectacular way of playing, closer to the way he used to play himself
than to the way he used to ask his players at Lille and Paris to play
for him.

Star Player

Didier Drogba

A true African Superstar, alongside Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o Fils,
is having a one of his best seasons so far. The
giant had scored thirteen goals in the Premiership by December 16, which is his
combined total for both the 2007/08 and 2008/09 seasons. Carlo Ancelotti's
influence has been flagrant to anyone following the blues lately.

As the captain of the Elephants, Drogba has been much more than just a
football player. An ambassador for peace in his country, Bono-like
involvement in keeping the Civil War down as well as charitable work
throughout the continent make him a symbol across Africa, much
like George Weah a decade ago.

Drogba has been having a great qualification campaign, scoring seven
goals throughout the phase and assisting twice. A leader on and off the
pitch, the ex-Marseille player will have to step his game up this winter
to ensure himself a title with the national team. They fell short and
lost to Egypt in 2008 (a humiliating 4-1 defeat to the two-time
consecutive champions) but this whole generation's last shot at
greatness will be in Luanda.

At nearly 32, Drogba won't be playing at this level much longer and has
stated so in several interviews. His lucidity will help him and his
teammates stay grounded and hopefully stay away from any lack of
humility, the way they did in 2006.

Young Gun

Gervinho, Gervais Yao Kouassi (Lille OSC)

The
22 year-old midfielder
and winger is becoming a starter on the team. Being a proud
product of the Jean-Marc Guillou ASEC Mimosas youth academy, the young
phenom did the usual trip done countless times by Mimosifcom products,
leading him to KSK Beveren in Belgium before moving to another side.

Spotted very early on by Le Mans recruiters on Didier Drogba's advice, he
was bought and left the Belgian club only two seasons later in 07 to
play for Le Mans UC72 in the French Ligue 1. This season, after two campaigns with the Sarthian club he was bought by Lille OSC to replace new
Brazil international Michel Bastos and he's been impressive to say the
least. After a few necessary games of adaptation, Lille seems to be
running through opposing teams like the Barcelona of France, having scored four goals each time
in their last four league showings.

Thanks to a stellar Gervinho (seven goals already this season) Lille has
been dominating the French Ligue 1 of late. His involvement with
Lille and his good results cannot leave his national team manager Vahid
Halilhodzic indifferent. After coaching Lille so long, Vahid is very
keen on making him the second striker on the team after the untouchable
captain. And so far Gervinho hasn't disappointed and even scored his
first double as an international in the last qualifying game in the
campaign against Guinea.

Gervinho will be another player to watch out for on an Ivorian team that
counts many superstars.

Team
Objective

The title, plain and simple. This is arguably the best African team at
the moment and their manager's head is on the line. After falling short
in 2006 and 2008, the Elephants will have to step their games up and
avoid choking the way they did in 2008. With a great defence, a
star-studded midfield and offense, Cote d'Ivoire can beat any team in the
tournament and will have to, if they want their second continental
crown.

Prediction

The
chances of Cote d'Ivoire not making it at least to the semi finals are
slim. Even though they are in the "Group of Death" alongside Togo,
Burkina-Faso and Ghana, it is fairly certain the Black Stars and them
are a smudge over the rest of the group. They are the favourites the way
they were in 2008, but this time their coach will be there the whole
time and hopefully for him (and him if he wants to coach at a
World Cup), they'll be able to make their way to the top of African football.